Miner’s Dilemma

Case Study Video Example

The Management Consulted Case Library is like a consulting case book, but it’s online, has hundreds of high quality cases, and is easy-to-use. Jump into this Bain case study!

Case Study Prompt

Your client is in the mining industry. They have just purchased a mountain that has high concentrations of a valuable metal ore. Unfortunately, the mountain is made up of an unusually hard type of rock and none of the commercially available drills are able to penetrate the mountain’s surface. Your client’s engineers have built a prototype of a drill that could be used to extract the metal from the mountain.

The client is not sure about whether to manufacture the drill and has doubts regarding profitably mining at the mountain. Help the client think through the issue.

Case Study Overview

This case from the Case Library (AKA an online consulting case book) will prep you for your Bain interview. Make sure to read the prompt carefully to get the full picture of the problem you are being asked to solve.

How will you structure your approach to the case? In this case, you can use the Profitability Framework to get started with your structure, but don’t rely on the basic frameworks. Use your creativity, business smarts, and knowledge of the frameworks to build a custom framework.

This Bain case is heavy in the math portion – expect to see a case like this in a final round at Bain. There are no math exhibits in the case.

Bain Interview Tips

Bain is seeking practicality in its case interview candidates. The firm wants to see how you would navigate real-world business problems. Are able to take a step back from the case?

Keep the real-world application in mind when creating your structure – would you assign a team of analysts to the work-streams you created?

Maximize your case study practice by doing these 2 things:

1. Timing yourself as you walk through the case (recommended times are listed on the Guidance pages)
2. Come away with 1 or 2 takeaways or areas you can improve upon

Get out-loud case practice with an ex-MBB coach. Book a session today.

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